Rivalries

Tuesday of this week, my friend Jen and her little boy Finn came over for a visit. Finn was sporting his Ohio State onesie, so of course Sebastian had to represent in his Gator gear! The boys had a great time playing together. It's nice that they can be such good friends even though the Gators beat out Ohio State for both the Football and Basketball National Championships. :)

We also have some great video of Sebastian laughing, but due to technical difficulties we can't post it right now...check back later and we'll try to have it posted. OR, you can subscribe to receive email updates everytime we update the blog (the link is on the right under our email address).

Sebastian and Finn lounging on the couch.

Sebastian and Finn laughing on the floor together.

Now that the weather is getting cooler we pulled out some of Sebastian's warmer clothes. We thought this outfit was adorable on him. He had little pants to match, but a little incident presented itself after dinner so we had to improvise. The jeans looked really cute too. What can we say...he looks really cute in anything!! :) He's getting to be such a big boy!!!

We are all doing well and staying busy as usual. Sebastian is also trying out bananas now and seems to like those a little more than the cereal. Boy is baby feeding messy! We just starting working on some baby sign language with Sebastian and he seems to watch pretty closely, so I can't wait until he actually "communicates" with us for the first time. They say that usually by the time their one they may start signing back. We'll see! Also, we've been going to the Library for "Tiny Tales" every Thursday. It's a great 20 minute program with nursery rhymes, songs and of course, a story. Sebastian loves the songs, pays really close attention to the reading part and loves to see all the other babies each week. This week we played with a colorful parachute and most of the kids were pretty wowed. I think Sebastian has liked seeing bubbles the best though. I'll have to buy some at the store to play with. Below are some pictures of what we've been up to lately.

I opened my birthday present from Sebastian in the morning before I left for work. "He" made me a card with cute frog stickers on it and even signed it with an outline of his little hand and foot. It was soooo cute!

When I opened my present he was much more interested in the tissue paper and then in looking at something on the floor. Oh well! But his gift was this double frame with our picture and his little 5 month old hand print in plaster. I LOVED it! It's so special. You can tell I thought it was the best birthday present ever!

We had a birthday celebration with my family with birthday hats and all. I had to make sure Sebastian didn't grab the candles. He didn't like the noise makers too much.

We also celebrated with the Giammarinaro's. There are four October birthdays in the family so we just do one big party for all. My shirt sure is bright - I was supporting my Gators!

Sebastian and his Uncle Corey.

My best friend Sarah has a little boy too, Jackson (8 months). They boys are only 3 months apart and we try to get them together when we can. Last Tuesday I babysat Jackson on my day off which meant I had two babies to watch - Sebastian and Jackson. Jackson is crawling, very mobile and eating much more food, so it was interesting trying to juggle both the boys in their very different stages despite being so close in age. It's amazing what a difference only a couple of months can make! Sebastian loved playing in Jackson's exersaucer and Jackson would always pull up and play with him too. It was very cute! What great buddies!


Sebastian thought that Jackson was very entertaining. I could just prop him up on the couch (he is very, very close to sitting up on his own) and he would crack up laughing as he watched Jackson crawl around. I hope he was taking notes on the whole crawling thing!

Hi Mami!

He loves grabbing his feet now. When he has socks or a sleeper on he grabs at his feet like "where are my toes?"


I'm a happy boy! I love the smiles we get on the changing table.

Sebastian Starts Real Food!

This weekend I went to a Baby Shower for my childhood friend and neighbor Betsy. Her little boy Andrew is due on 12/31! You can check out her blog at the link on the right hand side of our blog. Also, we went to a Doctor's appointment today and as we had suspected for few weeks now, he encouraged us to start Sebastian on some solids! Big milestone in the parenting world! So, below is chronicled our experience with Sebastian and solids. Enjoy!

Betsy with Sebastian and Cristina.

Mami and Sebastian playing.

Starting Solids Adventure

The Doctor suggested giving him his last feeding right before bedtime and then following up with a bottle. So Paul gave him his bath and he's all baby fresh ready to have his first spoonful of Rice Cereal mush. As I was making it I gave it a try and it wasn't too bad. I wouldn't want to eat it, but it was certainly edible. We sit down and the first spoonful shown above was not met with much interest...just a weird look and him staring a the video camera like "what's the big deal now?"

Since the spoon was not met with favorable reception, I opted for the finger trick which I read often times is more successful for the first few weeks. Sure enough, he at least opened his mouth for this pea-sized amount. I think the consistency and taste were a bit of a shock, but he didn't spit too much of it out.

By his second "fingerfull" he was certainly expressing that this was an unusual taste - seems like he didn't like it, but this didn't stop him from continuing to open his mouth for our finger. What can I say, he's just like his Daddy.

A little more finger feeding and he is into this! He's playing with it with his tongue and guiding our fingers into his mouth. He's trying to eat and suck his thumb at the same time. He's getting his hands all over his face....why did we give him a bath before we tried this? I guess that's what new parents do...

He was so into the fingerfeeding that we decided to try the spoon again. And he opened right up!!! No airplane or begging and pleading - he was ready for it. We even had to give him an extra spoon to play with because he kept wanting to grab the spoon away from us! So all in a days work - he ate 1 Tablespoon of Rice Cereal - I can't believe it, but he finished practically all of it! And seriously, most of it went right into his mouth and tummy! YEAH!

We love this new video feature. Make sure to click on the play button below the image to see Sebastian eating for the first time!

After we cleaned up, Sebastian was just RAVING about his first experience with REAL food. Check it out...

A few new pictures. Sebastian is really starting to enjoy his exersaucer. He can even pull on the dangling parts to make them light up and make music. He is so excited when he manages to do this, and mad if he can't. What can I say, it's a steep learning curve being a baby!

Daddy and Sebastian enjoy a bed time book. Because I read to Sebastian so much, he really pays close attention to books! He's going to be my little reader!

I cut my hair! I donated a little over 1 foot of my hair to this great organization called Locks of Love. Now I am having fun with my new short do. Sebastian loves it because it is much easier to grab and pull.